Iran-Switzerland gas deal irks US

Press TV -- A major energy deal signed between Iran and Switzerland for delivery of Iranian gas to the European country has infuriated the US.

"We have conveyed to the Swiss that major new oil and gas deals with Iran send precisely the wrong message at a time when Iran continues to defy UN Security Council resolutions," the US embassy in Bern said in a statement, according to AFP.

On Monday, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Swiss counterpart announced at a joint press conference that Tehran and Bern struck the contract, allowing the European country to annually import over five billion cubic meters of natural gas.

The 25-year deal signed between Switzerland's Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg and the National Iranian Gas Export Company is aimed at reducing Bern's dependency on Russian gas.

Iran will start selling half a billion cubic meters of gas to Switzerland in 2009 and the sale is planned to increase to over five billion cubic meters in 2012.